Uniforme policial militar: estudo da adequabilidade, funcionalidade e ergonometria nas Polícias de Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Norte e Santa Catarina

Abstract

Clothing aimed at professionals for carrying out their labor activities is called uniform. In the case of military clothing, it is the official symbol and representation of soldiers in the armed forces, expressing the values, tradition, hierarchy and discipline in each of the institutions, as in the Military Police. And must to perform the following main objectives to the users: protection from external factors, functionality for tasks and identification; but also provide comfort. Due to its importance, there are scientific efforts in studies focused on this theme, mainly in the institutions of the armed forces. However, there are few studies on the functionality and comfort of uniforms used by the Military Police. This fact fosters a scenario of scarcity of knowledge about the characteristics of structural and ergonomic attributes of these uniforms, and their relationship in the different situations experienced by the PMs (climate, social and work performance). Therefore, this research aims to characterize the structural, colorimetric and mechanical properties of the Military Police uniforms in the Brazilian states Minas Gerais (MG), Rio Grande do Norte (RN) and Santa Catarina (SC), investigating how suitable they are for conjuncture of the PM's work activities, and to analyze the perception of the military police in the state of RN. For this, several tests were carried out on specimens from each state to characterize the structural, colorimetric and mechanical properties; and PMRN agents were interviewed using a self-administered questionnaire to investigate the perception of comfort, protection and satisfaction. As a result, it was possible to verify structural similarity between the PMMG and PMSC uniforms, and some significant differences regarding the PMRN; in the behavior of the tissues in the mechanical properties, the PMRN obtained greater resistance and elongation; the satisfactory performance in dry fastness and dry friction and unsatisfactory in wet friction fastness for the three uniforms; and that there was a loss of color after washing.. From the perspective of PMRN agents, they reported feeling dissatisfied and unprotected with the current uniform, having a negative perception in most aspects of comfort, protection and satisfaction. Such results demonstrated that these garments are closer to conventional fabrics, and cannot be considered technical textiles and also do not meet the demands of the PM. Regarding the specific uniform of the PMRN, it is possible to indicate that it is not yet adequate and does not have functionalities, and that there is a need for further studies and improvements to meet these aspects and ergonomic requirements.